Floor by floor deconstruction
Floor by Floor Decostruction is a method used on structures that have come to the end of there useful life. Building such as Tower blocks which are too big to demolish by High reach demolition, or are situated too close to other structures or for Explosive demolition (Blow down) techniques to be used, are deconstructed floor by floor. The technique is used in the City of London for a lot of high rise office blocks as well.Generally the building is fully scaffolded and protective screens erected all round. The building is then Soft stripped, the removal of all timber like doors, windows cupboards etc after the removal of any Asbestos by specialists. Any remaining furniture, carpets, heater, appliance , and cookers etc that are not part of the actual building also go to leave a bare concrete shell. Often a tower crane is fitted up to assist lifting equipment and tools. The lifts are removed and the lift shaft blocked off at each floor after the soft strip material is sent down the hole as it is used as large rubbish chute, the pit being filled and the doorway opened up at the bottom to remove the rubbish. Small excavators fitted with hydraulic breakers or crushing jaws are lifted onto the roof along with a "Bobcat" skid-steer loader. Depending on the building it may be necessary to put temporary supports under the roof / floors to carry the weight. Holes are then punched in the concrete roof slab, a crash deck may be installed below for safety so the waste only falls a short distance,it is then moved to the lift shaft and tipped down. At the bottom another machine removes it to a waste heap for loading into lorries by an excavator or Loading shovel. The Mini excavators then eat ther way through each level. when a large hole os made a ramp can be fitted and the machine driven onto the lower floor, or it's lifted down by the crane. The rest of the roof/ floor is demolished then the lift shaft is taken down a level. The skid-steer moves the waste concrete to the lift to keep the floor clear. This is repeated till the height is reduced to a level tht a High reach machine can reach, it thers is room. This may be a case of taking the top 5 stories off on a 15 story building to reduce it to say 30m high. But machine are now available of 50m + capacity so this is less common on tower blocks to use this method as they have space around them to operate big machines. If no they cary on till the buildings reduced to about 4 stories the a normal machine fitted with a demolition Tool takes over, and muches the rest up till its down to the foundations. The rubble is then reprocessed by a large crusher to break it up into smaller bits, for use as hardcore, which is screened to remove rubbish and the steel reinforcing which is sold for scap to be recycled. The hardcore is either left on site in a heap ( sometimes grassed over) till thee site redeveloped or sold off as fill for other job or to build roads. Category:Demolition methods